“The true interior, spiritual life is not for people looking for ways to be happy; it’s for those who have started to realize that they’ve never known the real nature of happiness.” – Guy Finley

It is kind of funny how we look outside of ourselves for so many things. We think that happiness comes from the love of our soul partner; from the dream job; from the acquiring of money and things. If we only can find or obtain this one thing, then we will be happy.

We look outside of ourselves when we are feeling any emotion that doesn’t feel good. If we are angry we blame someone or something else for that feeling. If we are worried we look around to try and find something that is causing the worry. All stress comes from holding on to these negative emotions, thinking that somehow we can change something outside of ourselves and then we will be happy.

But the truth is that all emotions originate inside of us. They originate from some story that we are telling ourselves is true. They come from a perception, projection, or interpretation to what we see through the filter of our mind. Your internal fears are telling you that something is missing, when in fact real happiness is just behind the illusions that your mind is projecting.

Watch a baby to see how effortless happiness is. There is a video on you tube of a baby that has a piece of paper and the baby just laughs and laughs as the dad rips the paper. (it is called Baby Laughing Hysterically at ripping paper (Original). Look it up for a moment of happiness for yourself). Happiness is a natural part of life, not the result of anything that we do. It is like the air that we breathe, always there and part of life waiting to be experienced. It can’t be possessed, or chased after. It just is.

Babies are such good examples of letting the emotions flow through you. They might get mad and cry, and then two minutes later they are giving you kisses or laughing at you. They don’t get attached to their emotions; they don’t let them rule their experience of life, and that is why they are such good examples of experiencing happiness.

Babies also love to make you laugh. They love to spread their happiness to everyone they meet. I’ve never met someone who when a baby smiled at them or laughed didn’t smile themselves. They are so contagious with their happiness, they love to share it. We need to follow their example, and enjoy life every moment!

“Any happiness we feel over the pain that someone else goes through — regardless of who or why — insures we remain a blind prisoner of the fact that hidden within our present idea of happiness also lies the source of our suffering.” Guy Finley

I thought that this was very interesting. I have always thought that the smile hidden deep inside when we see “karma” come into someone’s life was me being small. That I was “happy” because they were reaping the harvest of their bad seeds. I thought it made me feel good because it meant that my keeping all of the rules paid off.

Yet this is showing that some if not all of this smallness inside of me is related to the thought that somehow I developed the belief that you can’t have good without the bad. That the flip side of happiness is suffering, and that experiencing happiness itself guarantees that I will also have suffering.

Maybe this is why some people are afraid of being happy – because they believe that it will be taken away and that suffering will take its place? This is probably the source of the sayings such as, “it is better to love, and lose than to never have loved at all” – and similar thoughts come from. That if we are experiencing anything positive and good, that the negative will follow to take it away.

So instead of being a blind prisoner we can examine our thoughts the next time that this happens to us, to see what is underneath the surface. If this is keeping you a prisoner you can work this belief loose and free yourself from it. Knowledge is power and holds the key to our freedom, if we take the time to examine the layers beneath the surface.